Journalist Institutes Form Joint Action Committee

Joint Action Committee to work towards Reinstating Down-sized workers

Lahore: Journalism Institutions including journalists and media workers from across Lahore in the presence of the President, Lahore Press Club formed a Joint Action Committee to fight for the purpose of reinstating fired workers.

Journalist institutions from all over Lahore gathered today in the presence of the President of Lahore Press Club to form a Joint Action Committee that will serve the purpose of fighting for the rights ad reinstating of the fired media workers from today.

This committee will negotiate with the Government and Media institutions to help resolve the issue of unemployment faced by journalists and media workers. It is estimated that about 400 workers have been sacked within Lahore alone till now.

Media houses claim that they are down-sizing employees because they are not receiving advertisements from the government of Pakistan which is making it impossible for them to continue without firing any workers, however, Fayyaz ul Hassan, Minister of Information claims that the government is providing advertisements to media houses, channels and newspapers.

He further stated that the Punjab government will stand for the protection of rights of its journalists and media workers.

Arshad Ansari, former President of the Lahore Press Club and current member of the Joint Action Committee claims, “we are protesting against media houses who are forcing poverty upon our workers. We will continue to protest till our demands are met.”

The government is claiming that they have not stopped any advertisements. They should provide us with the advertisements from the last 2 or more months because the media houses are forcing poverty upon our workers by firing them for this reason. The government is speaking of change and progress but, we are being forced away from our employment and means of survival. What kind of government is this that has started targeting the livelihood of the community that has sacrificed their lives for change and progress?

Azam Chaudhry President, Lahore Press Club

All journalist institutes from across Lahore participated in this rally against the oppression of the media houses. The Lahore Press Club including EMRA, EMPRA, PUJ, PFUJ as well as other journalist groups participated in the protest.

Sanniah is an English Major from Kinnaird College; she earned her Bachelor’s credits from Kinnaird as well. Her passions include reading and writing as well as cooking and taking good photographs. She aims to be a perfectionist. In her free time she attempts to maintain a personal blog and aspires to be a fiction writer.